Messi's big decision: return or not to Barça

To the question of whether Leo Messi will wear the Barça shirt again one day, a categorical no can be answered.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
19 July 2022 Tuesday 01:54
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Messi's big decision: return or not to Barça

To the question of whether Leo Messi will wear the Barça shirt again one day, a categorical no can be answered. The Argentine star's contract with PSG, his current club, expires in a year and that is when Messi will have to decide what to do, whether to head towards American football (Inter Miami) as the slow final stretch of his career, or go through Barça to compete and, above all, to say goodbye as God intended to what was his fans. For such a twist in the script, the Argentine, who would have just turned 36, has an ally at the Camp Nou, Xavi Hernández, current coach of the first team with whom he maintains a more than fluid relationship. Their friendship is still intact.

"I don't know what to say. I had never imagined a farewell," Messi said through tears on August 8, 2021, not yet a year ago. "They told me that it cannot be done for LaLiga and for the club's debt", he added, giving the version of the president Joan Laporta to stop at the last moment the formal act of signing a contract already reviewed by the lawyers of both parties . In that documentation the final date was obviously included: 2026. Until that age Messi thought to play professional football.

If the chemistry with Xavi is evident, with Joan Laporta there ceased to be precisely because of the way in which he left. Not only that. Some subsequent statements by the president did not please the footballer, such as when he stated that he would have liked him to have stayed at Barça playing for free. Messi, the day of his farewell, remarked that he had lowered 50% of the record and that afterwards "they didn't ask me for anything else". That's why those words bothered him. He also said on the day of his goodbye a phrase to take into account: “I have no doubt that we will return because it is our home too. I have promised my children.”

Is the relationship between the Messi (we must include here his father Jorge, who is also his representative) and Joan Laporta traceable? Most likely yes. Both parties always got along well as was shown in the last elections (Messi did not say who he voted for but it was not necessary when he appeared with one of his sons to do so) and an approach is not ruled out. In fact, this already took place remotely in the past month of May. Jorge Messi attended a camera from the Twitch channel Jijantes at El Prat airport and, when asked if Messi would be seen again playing with Barça, he said: "Hopefully, one day." Laporta did not take long to react from Getafe, where the first team was displaced: "Of course I would like him to come back". Both the president and Rafa Yuste, vice president of the Blaugrana club who led the talks with the Messi to renew for months, have that thorn stuck and are aware that sooner or later they will have to pull it out. The most predictable option is the organization of a tribute that remains pending. The one that would generate the most repercussion would be to see the Argentine back under the orders of Xavi Hernández.

Just as the incorporation of Messi is considered plausible by the current technical staff for footballing reasons beyond the sentimental ones, the incorporation of Cristiano Ronaldo was never contemplated despite the fact that Joan Laporta fed it by not denying it categorically when asked by the press . The Portuguese was offered through his representative as did Neymar, whose habits ruled out hiring him.